May is governing with 'one eye over her shoulder'4:34

Despite receiving a rousing reception from delegates at the conservative conference on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is governing with 'one eye over her shoulder' according to Monash University's Dr Ben Wellings.
Mrs May defended her Brexit negotiations, and declared 'the end of austerity' for Britain, a decade on from the global financial crisis.
Her comments come a day after former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson railed against the government's Brexit plan.
Dr Wellings has told Sky News despite Mrs May's best efforts, she has to govern with a 'significant minority' of her own party against her.

October 4th 2018

2 months ago

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British Prime Minister Theresa May hasn’t had an easy time lately.Source:AFP

THE problems keep on piling up for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is facing trouble from her Cabinet, her party and from the chaos-filled Brexit process.

And there is one brutal, withering take-down from one of her own MPs that sums up the mood - and her predicament.

“I have lost all faith in this sh*tshow, which has run out of road on Brexit and is bereft of ideas on the domestic front. We don’t even deserve to be in power.”

The scathing comment, reported by The Times, came from one of Mrs May’s Conservative MPs who is in marginal seat and fears a landslide loss to the opposition Labour Party if an election is held soon.

A general election now - with Brexit happening in March - is in no-one’s interest, but the UK Government doesn’t have a majority in parliament and its grip on power is lessening by the day.

But the prime minister has even bigger problems than that - and it all comes down to the number of letters a powerful Conservative Party committee has been sent about her.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is being attacked in all directions.Source:AFP

The so-called 1922 Committee of backbench MPs can make or break leaders and lead to their removal (something Australian Prime Minister’s know all about), but under the UK Conservative party rules, a leadership spill can be triggered if 15 per cent of MP’s write a no confidence letter to the 1922 committee chairman.

So far, 44 such letters have been sent - meaning four is the magic number that Mrs May needs to avoid to fend off a challenge.

The letters are sent secretly unless the MPs out themselves. Only the chairman knows the exact number, but British media’s reporting four were sent two weeks ago and a further three at the party conference - where the PM shimmied onstage to Abba’s Dancing Queen.

MPs have warned her they could organise the remaining four letters quickly.

A former minister, who quit over her Brexit plans, was reported as saying over the weekend she would “face a landslide against her” if Brexit didn’t go through.

Commentators in the UK think she is going to need more fast moves to avoid a spill. The situation has become even more complicated over the last 24 hours after her latest trip to Brussels to try and find a breakthrough as the Brexit deadline gets closer.

Hardcore Brexit backers and pro-EU loyalists alike rounded on her after she said she was considering keeping Britain in line with the European Union for months longer, by extending a transition period until December 2021.

Several heavyweight Brexiteers in the Conservative Party wrote a joint open letter, warning May she would never be forgiven if Brexit results in “surrender”.

The letter was signed by former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and ex-Brexit secretary David Davis - their first joint intervention after resigning in July over May’s Brexit blueprint, which would keep Britain close to the EU on trade.

Spanish Primer Minister Pedro Sanchez and Mrs May at the EU leaders summit.Source:AFP

They insisted Britain must avoid the “purgatory of perpetual membership of the EU’s customs union”.

The British public would not forgive the potential gains of Brexit being “sacrificed because of EU bullying and the government’s desperation to secure a deal”, they said.

Meanwhile, other parts of the party were distancing themselves for the same reason.

Conservative “soft Brexit” backer Nick Boles summed up the situation.

“She is losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion,” he told BBC radio.

May’s critics are not limited to her own party or hardcore Brexiteers, with pro-EU voices weighing in.